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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2648 KP) rated Verse and Vengeance (A Magical Bookshop Mystery #4) in Books

Sep 7, 2021  
Verse and Vengeance (A Magical Bookshop Mystery #4)
Verse and Vengeance (A Magical Bookshop Mystery #4)
Amanda Flower | 2019 | Mystery
5
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Weak Plot but Charming Characters
Violet Waverly is upset to see that PI Joel Redding is back in town, and once again staking out Charming Books, trying to learn about the secret of the bookstore. But when he is killed during the first annual Tour de Cascade Springs bike race, she begins to wonder what else he was up to. Will the investigation lead back to Violet’s secret? Why does the bookstore keep putting copies of Walt Whitman’s poetry in her path?

I really enjoyed the third book in the series earlier this year, so I sat down looking forward to this one. Sadly, the mystery disappointed. While there are some developments, the pacing could have been better. Then, in the rush to wrap things up, a major part of the mystery remains unexplained. I don’t normally read paranormal cozies, but I do enjoy the magical essence of this series. We get some additional mythology here, which I appreciated. Likewise, the series characters continue to grow, as do their relationships. Series fans will still enjoy this book even if the mystery could be stronger.
  
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David McK (3883 KP) rated Kingdom of Bones (Sigma Force #16) in Books

Oct 22, 2023  
Kingdom of Bones (Sigma Force #16)
Kingdom of Bones (Sigma Force #16)
James Rollins | 2022 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I read this in the latter stages of 2023, approximately 3 years after the Covid-19 Worldwide pandemic had first struck.

It was a little uncomfortable doing so at first, especially as the main driver for the plot was the start of a worldwide pandemic that badly affected the Human Race.

Caused by mans encroachment of, and deforestation of, Nature.

Sound at all familiar?

Indeed, in his foreward the author even states that he debated finishing the novel for that very reason ...

Anyway, once you get past the uncomfortable feeling, what you have here is a fairly standard Sigma Force story, with Guy Pierce and his team racing against the clock to find the cause of, and a cure to, the contagion whilst other members of the team look for a scientific solution.

I have to say, however, that this particular entry didn't gel as much with me: perhaps because of the complete sidelining of Seichan and Guy's home life? Perhaps because I didn't find the heavy focus on the natural world as interesting as those that focus more on history (and mythology).

Whatever the reason, it just didn't come across as enjoyable to me.
  
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Morgan Sheppard (1037 KP) created a post

Jun 10, 2026  
Welsh lake mythology is some of the most quietly unsettling folklore I know, and I mean that with enormous affection.

The lakes of Wales, in the old tradition, are not passive landscape features. They are active, wilful, and possessed of long memories.

Llyn y Fan Fach gives up a woman of the Tylwyth Teg to a mortal man under precise and fragile conditions, and when those conditions are broken — three times, three causeless blows — she walks back into the water and takes everything she brought with her. The lake doesn't mourn. It simply closes over her again, as though she had never left.

Other lakes hide drowned villages beneath their surfaces, places that were swallowed for a transgression or simply because the water decided to reclaim what had always been its own. On still nights, the bells of those sunken churches are said to carry upward through the water.

There is a particular kind of mythological thinking at work here — one that understands landscape not as backdrop but as character, and water not as resource but as sovereign. The lake gives. The lake takes back. It was never yours to keep.

#WelshFolklore #FolkloreFantasy #TalesFromWales #StillWatersDeep #BetweenHillAndSea #IndieAuthor